I woke up early one morning last week and decided to get up. Nick was still asleep, so I grabbed my camera and notebook, made a cup of coffee and slipped outdoors in my nightgown to experience the outdoors in the early morning light. This might sound like a no-biggie to many of you, but it is quite rare for me to be up early like that nowadays.
As much as I have tried in my life to reschedule my natural body clock so that I could get to sleep at a decent time at night and wake up refreshed and ready to go at 7am, it has always been a challenge for me. Back in the days of the stressful day-job where breakfast meetings were the norm, I remember stumbling around, almost feeling sick to my stomach, as I got ready, pulling on my suit and heading out the door.
I always used to take my shower at night because there was no way I could do it in the morning, even though this meant dealing with wonky ‘slept on while still damp’ hair in the morning. Come to think of it, my hair was a heck of a lot shorter then too, so I could just damp it down, comb it and go. Everything about my routine was planned to help make those mornings more bearable.
I used to travel quite a bit for work, which meant extremely early pick-ups to go to the airport, and I remember sitting in the back seat or the car, in the dark because the sun had not yet risen, and just feeling not quite ready to face such a big day.
But I was good at that job, and by the time I arrived at that early breakfast or destination, nobody I met with would ever have realized what a struggle it had been for me to get there that early.
I spent years surrounded by morning-people and really always wished I could join their ranks. Though now that I’m thinking about it, I realize that my way of being offered a different perk, in that I was often the last one to leave the office, many evenings having to run to the electicity-box to turn the lights back on in my office, after they had automatically shut off for the night. This suited me just fine, as I was able to get my best work done on those quiet evenings. I got to know the office cleaning staff well, knowing when their daughters were getting married and how old their grandchildren were. In fact, I still regularly quote a woman who used to empty my trashcan into the big bin she would roll through the office.
The truth is, I loved the job but really disliked the early morning start to the day that was necessary to do it.
So now, in writing this post, I am a bit stuck. How do I segue from a discussion about hating early morning risings, to writing about the joy felt upon getting up so early on this particular morning?
I think I will let the pictures take over from here …
- Cafe au lait (How To) in my big favourite cup, Portmeirion.
- Using a half-size binder as my planner notebook, stocked with tabs, dividers and handy pages left over from my former ‘never-leave-my-side’ Day-timer.
- Unbrushed hair and a new cotton nightgown.
- Herbs and flowers in the morning light.
- My urban wildlife pets to keep me company.
- Joy
How about you? Morning person or night owl? How has your natural internal clock affected the way you live your life?
